The Islanders have signed goaltender John Grahame for the remainder of the season to back up Al Montoya. Newsday’s Arthur Staple reported that he should join the team on Friday.

Grahame has not appeared in an NHL game since the 2007-2008 season, when he played in 17 games and had a 3.75 goals against average and a .875 save percentage. Since then he split time between the AHL’s Albany River Rats, KHL’s Omsk Avangard, AHL’s Adirondack Phantoms and the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters.

The 36 year old retired after last season, playing in 34 games for the Monsters, posting a 2.39 goals against average and a .911 save percentage.

Before signing with the Islanders today, he had been the goaltending coach for the Sioux City Musketeers of the USHL.

Nabokov left last night’s 5-3 win over the Penguins after falling awkwardly midway through the second period. It looked like a Pens player, who was hovering around the left side of the net, tripped him up.

The fear is that Nabokov may have a groin injury. He suffered one earlier in the season against Montreal on November 17 and missed 11 games.

As for David Ullstrom, who left last night’s game with an upper body injury, he did practice today with the Islanders. But no information was given regarding his health.

Islanders’ propect Mikko Koskinen doesn’t take to being run into kindly. And when Tommi Huhtala did so during a SM-liiga playoff game he gave the Blues player a piece of his mind.

The 23 year old goaltender didn’t last too long before Huhtala sent him to the ice and Koskinen’s teammates came to his aid. You have to love the fight in Koskinen and his willingness to stand up for himself.

Unfortunately, Koskinen received a one-game suspension for the fight, as did Huhtala.

With any shot at the playoffs pretty much shot, the New York Islanders are now playing with the role of spoiler and just making the best of what remains of this season. The Pittsburgh Penguins were the victims of this particular night, as the Islanders beat the Pens for the first time in Pittsburgh since December, 2007, and putting a dent in the Penguins’ hopes to obtain first place in the conference over the New York Rangers.

The Islanders would come out flying, and it wouldn’t take them long to get the lead as Dylan Reese would fire a puck off the boards, right onto the stick of Frans Nielsen who shot it right into a practically empty net. The Penguins would buzz throughout the rest of the period, with Evgeni Nabokov having to come up big a couple of times, but it would be the Islanders who would get the next goal. As the period was coming to a close, Frans Nielsen would spring Michael Grabner into the Pittsburgh zone, and Grabner would fire one right past Marc-Andre Fleury and give the Islanders a 2-0 lead into the second period.

The second period started as most would have guessed, the Penguins came out flying and shooting left right and center. A deflection by Tyler Kennedy would cut the lead 2-1, and the game would be tied not too late after that. It’s a commonly known rule that when a defenseman pinches, there needs to be a forward to stay behind to cover for that defenseman, but it seems like the Islanders’ top line forgot that particular rule. As Mark Streit went to pinch to create a 2-on-1, no one stayed back to cover for him leading to a 2-on-1 going the other way with Chris Kunitz and James Neal, which ended in Neal hammering a one timer past Nabokov for 36th of the year.

After surviving the early onslaught, however, the ice seemed to tilt back in the Islanders favor as Kyle Okposo would take advantage of a mistake by Brooks Orpik, and fire a wrister right past Fleury and give the Islanders back their lead. The Islanders weren’t done however, and during a power play, Josh Bailey would make a brilliant play to pass it to a wide open David Ullstrom in front of the net, who made no mistake and shot it home for a PPG. Josh Bailey would do it again less than three minutes later, making a great pass to spring Frans Nielsen on a breakaway, who would deke the puck around a lunging Fleury and easily shoot it into the now empty net.

The Penguins would get one back off yet another one timer by James Neal during a 4 on 3 power play with the goaltender pulled, but it was all too little too late as the Islanders came out with the 5-3 win.

The only negatives of the game came in the third period, when Evgeni Nabokov wasn’t able to return to finish the game, after seemingly aggravating yet again his injured groin. No official word was given other then it was a lower body injury, but looking at the incident leading to the injury, the groin would seem to be a pretty safe bet. David Ullstrom also didn’t play in the third period, suffering from reportedly an upper body injury, and the only thing fans can do is simply hope it isn’t a concussion. Head coach Jack Capuano stated that he doesn’t expect either player to be ready to play in the second part of this home and home series versus the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night at the Nassau Coliseum.

The question now becomes who will back up Al Montoya, the likely starter, on Thursday night? With Nabokov being likely ruled out by Capuano, and Anders Nilsson still recovering from an injury suffered in Bridgeport, the only goaltender remaining is Kevin Poulin. However, calling Poulin up would put a very large dent in any hopes the Sound Tigers have of making the playoffs. One player to possibly keep an eye on is Rick DiPietro, who’s been practicing for over a week now. If he is close to being game ready, the Islanders shouldn’t hesitate to let him back up Montoya on Thursday night, so as to keep Poulin in Bridgeport and keep their playoff hopes alive. Whether it’s Poulin, DiPietro, or even Bridgeport’s backup, it will certainly be very interesting to see how the Islanders decide to deal with this latest goaltending issue.

The game started off slow for the Islanders in the first period. Nearly two minutes in Sean Bergenheim almost scored from in front of the net all alone, but Nabokov was able to make the save. Several minutes later, at 5:55, Stephen Weiss scored off a pass from Tomas Fleischmann behind the net. The Islanders had several scoring chances as the game progressed, but couldn’t find the back of the net.

However, with 1:03 left in the second period Matt Moulson buried a shot to tie the game at one. The Isles worked the puck around eventually finding Moulson, who tipped the puck to John Tavares. Tavares passed the puck right back to Moulson, who fired the shot from the hash marks past Theodore.

The Panthers would get the lead once more with a little over 10 minutes remaining in the game. Mark Streit to work the puck around the boards and of the Islanders zone, but a Florida player managed to cut off the attempt. The puck bounced right to Fleischmann, who was able to put it through Nabokov’s five-hole to make it 2-1 Panthers.

But the Islanders were not done just yet.

As the Islanders transitioned back into the Panthers zone, Frans Nielsen passed the puck over to Kyle Okposo. Okposo shot the puck towards a streaking Mark Streit, but the puck hit off the stick of Panther defensemen Dmitry Kulikov and redirected the net.

The game remained scoreless and went to overtime.

Michael Grabner looked to have a sure game winning goal midway through OT, but Theodore looked to have thrown his stick at the puck knocking it away from Grabner. No penalty was called on play and the game would end up having to head to the shootout.

Frans Nielsen won it using his forehand, backhand shot to beat Theodore and Nabokov stoned the three Panthers shooters.

Game Notes

- Matt Moulson scored his 34th goal of the season at 18:57 of the second period.

- John Tavares added his 44th assist of the season on Matt Moulson’s goal. It was also Tavares’s 75th point of the season.

The Islanders get back on the horse tonight when they take on the Florida Panthers at the Bank Atlantic Center.

The Isles fell to Lightning last night in a game they should have won. Steven Stamkos gave Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead, but Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo closed the gap. Matt Moulson gave the Islanders the lead 43 seconds into the third. That lead disappeared when Tom Pyatt scored for Tampa and former Islander Tim Wallace scored the game winner. Al Montoya stopped 22 of 26 shots for the Islanders in the loss and had a .846 save percentage.

Tonight, they’ll face a Panthers team that has had their number all season long. The Panthers defeated the Islanders 4-1 last time they met at the Nassau Coliseum.

Evgeni Nabokov is back in net for the Islanders tonight and Jay Pandolfo will be in the lineup. Capuano has not announced the scratches.

Michael Fornabaio has the lineups and numbers for this afternoon’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers Vs. Connecticut Whale. Kevin Poulin is playing in his 11th game in 12 days. (Connecticut Post)

Arthur Staple looks at some of the Isles top prospects and where they will likely be next season. (Newsday)

Could the next few weeks be the end of Al Montoya’s tenure as an Islander? "Obviously, there's no surprises with Nabokov signed now," coach Jack Capuano said. "Al's a great teammate, a great kid and he's trying to help us down the stretch and help himself. You don't know where it's going to go." (Newsday)

Isles prospect Cory Trivino has caught a small break in his felony case. The DA has dropped six of the most serious charges that could have landed him in jail for at least 20 years. (BU Today)

Quebec City took another step closer to getting an NHL team back. Mayor Regis Lebeaume announced that construction on a brand new $400 million arena will begin in September with hopes to have it completed by 2015. Coyotes fans should be more worried than Isles fans right now. (Pro Hockey Talk)

The Islanders are looking to making it three wins in a row as they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.

Last time these two teams met was back on December 6 at the Nassau Coliseum. The Islanders came away with a 5-1 win with goals from John Tavares, Matt Moulson, Matt Martin, David Ullstrom and Milan Jurcina. Al Montoya stoped 23 of the 24 shots he faced and put up a .958 save percentage.

Tonight the Islanders will send Montoya back out to defend the net against the lightning. He is making his second start in row since playing on February 20 against the Ottawa Senators.

Milan Jurcina and Jay Pandolfo will be tonight’s scratches for the Isles. Below is tonight’s Islanders lineup:

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